KAREN:  Well, what --

LILLIAN:  I know my own husband, I had to run up to him.  I left for work and he wasn't feeling good.  And -- no, this was after I -- I sent for the health aides to come and help me.  I had my own blood pressure cuff and -- that I got for myself.  And he all of a sudden fell down and he might have had a little, like, stroke maybe. 

KAREN:  Uh-hum. 

LILLIAN:  Because he fell on the floor and he was spinning, he said.  I can't -- I can't get up. 

So I took his blood pressure and it was pretty darn high.  And I had to send my -- my son down to go and get the health aides.  And I can't remember, I think I escorted him to Anchorage here, to get seen by a doctor. 

KAREN:  Uh-hum.  And that's when they diagnosed him as being sick? 

LILLIAN:  Pardon? 

KAREN:  They did -- what was the diagnosis? 

LILLIAN:  He had a -- a slight stroke.  And he had to have a patch on his eye because he couldn't see straight or something.
 
KAREN:  Oh.  Making him dizzy. 

LILLIAN:  Uh-hum (affirmative).  And then I -- we stayed with him here, my daughter came in with me.  And that's when he had -- I guess he had a slight heart attack and we didn't know it. 

But he was okay after he -- we came back, we went to a wedding and we came back here, then after he was well enough, we thought.  And this was caused by consuming alcohol, too much alcohol in his system. 

And they took X-rays of his -- his head to see -- I know, they were looking for something, I guess, to see if he had -- if he did have a stroke.  But he also -- that's when he also found out the back -- the back of your head here, the bottom part of your brain, it shrinks up.  And that's for years of drinking alcohol.  Yeah. 

I tried to tell him about it and he didn't want to hear it.  I guess -- and then it affected his heart because he had -- he was not too -- the heart muscle is affected. 

KAREN:  Right. 

LILLIAN:  Uh-hum (affirmative).  He was not to do any heavy lifting and all that.  But I don't know why they didn't do anything more.  I really don't. 
I -- he was told not to lift and not to overexert himself, don't do any shoveling, don't do any.  I think he hated that.  He couldn't do work around like he used to. 

And if you told him, he didn't -- he would get mad.  He'd say, I could do it if I want.  I said, no, you can't.  So we would sit there and argue about it for a while, and then he would think about it and then he would say okay.  He was not well for quite awhile. 

KAREN:  Uh-hum. 

LILLIAN:  But at least he could walk around and go to church and stuff like that.  He wanted to do things almost, always wanted to. 

KAREN:  And you both -- you continued to live out at Ghost Creek during that time? 

LILLIAN:  No. 

KAREN:  Oh. 

LILLIAN:  I had him come live with us down in Holy Cross.

KAREN:  Okay. 

LILLIAN:  Because I moved down there with Mary when she -- she had to go to do teaching.  She was working is her -- she had her BA in education.  Yeah.  She -- she caught there for 10 years before she came back to get her degree.

KAREN:  Oh, I see. 

LILLIAN:  Yeah.